Skullgirls: Trail of Fire
by Wendibo53
Summary: Its been 16 years since the incident at the Contiello estate and after many years, an ancient power will reawaken and with it comes questions with little answers... (plz review!) [ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]
1. Prolouge

( 16 years ago )

Brain Drain stood motionless in horror as a huge beam of teal light blasted out of the recently ruined Contiello estate, shockwaves of powerful energy followed with the violent roar. Deep within the center of the ruins stood the Skullgirl before a cloaked figure, she stared determinedly into the visually empty space inside the figure's hood with her bloodshot eyes, the symbol of a skull laid where her iris should be.

"P-Please, end me…" she said as tears flowed down her pale cheeks.

"But there has to be some other way to solve this!" the figure responded in objection.

"I wished for them to live … but not like this. They don't deserve this, especially my dear Sienna." she replied as she looked at a pendant with a heart engraved on it.

She then stumbled towards the figure and gave the pendant to him before she held his hand, a long sleek blade in its grasp. "So please, finish this…for her!"

The figure nodded his head and as Brain Drain stumbled close to them, he drove the blade through her body, piercing through the skull heart along with her. Tears dripped out of the empty space in the hood as she put her hand on his cheek.

Just as he was about to say something, she went up and mummered something into his ear before pushing him away, using the last bit of fading power she had left to contain her rampant energy as the surrounding area shook by a huge shockwave as everything was engulfed by a huge inferno.

Brain Drain dug himself out of the rubble a few minutes later to see the blade glowing bright blue with engravings freshly etched onto it as the cloaked figure laid unconscious a few feat away.

"Looks like I've underestimated you Subject 0-45," he spoke in his arrogant tone as he stood above the figure, his face exposed and bloodied. "perhaps I may still have use of you in the future."

He then walked away as Lab Zero operatives immediately came in to collect back their asset. They then carried the cloaked figure to a huge metal canister and placed him inside, oblivious to the fact he was wounded.

"Sir what do we do about this?" asked a hazmat suit equipped scientist as he showed Brain Drain the recently changed sword.

"Put it in deep storage like him." Brain Drain replied as he took one final look at the figure. But as the doors to the canister closed, the figure reached his hand out to the emotionless cyborg despite being in a daze before dozing off into a long, long slumber.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Rude Awakening **

( Present day, in an abandoned command bunker on the outskirts of New Meridian )

"Erethon, Erethon!" said a voice as the figure slowly opened his eyes, having no recollection of what had happened before he got there.

"You have to wake up!" the voice shouted at him, all he could see was white as streams of light moved fluently around him.

"Who are you?! What is this place ?!" he asked, his mind was filled with questions.

"In time you'll know what this is but for now you have to wake up Erethon! So wake up!" it replied as its slowly turned more and more mechanical at the end as the figure felt something shaking him by the shoulders, his surroundings slowly engulfed in blue flames.

After a few moments of more violent shaking, he woke up to an unsettling view of Brain Drain staring straight at him. All that he felt at that moment was sheer anger as he grabbed the cyborg by the neck.

"Subject 0-45, good to see that you're still physically fine but would you please get your hand off my neck?" he asked with his usually cold and collective voice. Realizing that violence was not getting him anywhere, Erethon reluctantly let him go. As he did so, an acute pain struck his right arm. Trying to find out the cause of the annoyance, he took a look at his arm and saw that it had blue engraving-like tattoos on his entire arm, blue light pulsed through them like blood through veins.

"Seems the incident has left a permanent scar on you hasn't it," Brain Drain said as he got himself up, brushing off the dirt from his coat.

"What would you know 'pickle brain'?" Erethon asked as he stepped out of his canister,

"Also, why aren't we at your lab? You finally got yourself compromised?"

"Well yes to your second question and as for your first," Brain Drain replied as another presence entered the room, her crude black claws stretch out to them from the darkness.

"Well look here Erethon I'd like to introduce to you one of my greatest operatives: Subject 0-84 aka Painwheel." Brain Drain said in a smug tone.

"I _was _Brain Drain," she replied as she stepped out of the corner, the claws of her Buer drive pointed at his throat. "don't you forget that!"

"Hey, calm down." Erethon said as he directed her blades away from Brain Drain.

"Have you seen what he did to me?! How can I possibly calm down?!" she shouted at him as her mask partially peeled to show her rising fury.

"We've both been scarred by this asshole and as much as I want to join you in sending him to hell as painfully as possible, I still have unfinished business to take care of and I need him _alive_. Besides, revenge will not lift such a painful burden off your soul." He replied as angering memories of what Brain Drain did to him starting coming back.

Finally succumbing to logic, Painwheel calmed down and retracted her huge appendage from the duo. As he was about to say something, Erethon was on his knees in distress as his eyes glowed bright blue. After a few seconds, Erethon got up with his hand on the side of his head.

"Hey what the hell are you okay?" Painwheel asked as she helped him up.

"I-I saw something…" He trailed off as he held back his huge migraine.

"What did you see?" Brain Drain said as he tried to assess what had just happened.

Erethon spoke of a nurse dressed in black, a skull with a first aid symbol for eyes replaced her iris. Painwheel then punched a whole in a nearby wall.

"There's a new Skullgirl isn't there?" Erethon asked them both in confusion as the bunker doors shook violently.

"Friends?" asked Painwheel Brain Drain as she drew out her claws.

"Afraid so." He replied as he loaded his rifle.

But before anyone else could say some smart comment, the whole front corridor flooded with flaming napalm, followed by a shower of bullets and the remains of the bunker door. Being caught off guard, Erethon received a bash to the face only to return the favour and sending the other guy flying into a wall along with some of his friends.

"Nice moves." Painwheel said as she immobilized a squad with her Gae Bolga implant, men grunted in discomfort as they struggled to get loose.

"You're not the only teen with immense physical strength!" he replied as he used a long metal pipe to clear a few who were about to ambush her.

"Enough!" said a loud, booming voice as it stepped out of the smoke.

"Princess Parasoul how nice of you to drop by!" Brain Drain cheered sarcasticly when he was shot by a stun gun.

"Wow pickle jar that was a really humiliating way to go down for someone so 'revered' like yourself." Erethon commented as the cyborg's body started spazzing out of control on the ground.

"You two are under arrest for assisting this 'man' and are to be taken in for questioning!" one of the men said as he pointed his pistol at two left standing.

"Give it your best shot!" smirked Painwheel as she got ready to make a full on charge.

Accepting her challenge, Parasoul took out her pistol and opened fire on Painwheel only to have a stray bullet whizz towards Erethon. As Painwheel and everyone else turned to look, streams of light started to leak out of the ground surrounding him and wrapped themselves around the bullet. Unconsciously, he reached out his hand towards the bullet and it reformed itself into a large scythe, the remaining streams circled around his right arm in a spiral fashion.

Erethon then raised his weapon and cleaved his way past the men surrounding him, their souls swarmed together to form a flaming pair of large, teal skeletal wings on Erethon's back. Just as things were about to escalate further, Painwheel grabbed the stun gun from before and shot Erethon in the chest. Fighting back against the volts of electricity, Erethon sliced the wall behind her cleanly in half before finally losing consciousness, giving Painwheel the opportunity to grabbed both him and Brain Drain before disappearing in a flash bang she detonated.

"Oh my," said Aeon as she viewed the recent events from within the Trinity's domain.

"What is it?" Her sister replied back curiously.

"It seems our little side project has resurfaced despite our little _seal_." Aeon said as she pointed towards the viewpoint.

"Well this'll be a show we can't miss then!" said a shady figure standing behind them, also viewing the events occurring in the window.

"But mother they-"

"No but's Venus," Their mother interrupted her as she made her way to a doorway,

"you and your sister created this problem by yourselves and now you two have to fix it."

Uneased by their mother's words, the sisters looked at each other thinking how much collateral damage would be caused by their 'little problem'.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Change of scenery**

( A few hours later, location unknown )

Darkness was all Erethon could see as he stayed floating in the dark abyss. Confusion rushed into his mind as the surroundings slowly morphed into the foot of a colossal mountain that with further inspection was made purely of ice and earth, held together by powerful forces. Before he could make sense of the situation, a loud explosion could be heard as the summit of the mountain was shattered apart with its fragments embedding themselves into the surrounding area. As a fragment was about to crush him, Erethon was suddenly transported to the freshly made crater and witnessed three glowing figures afloat above the burning ash as a large, serpentine like shadow moved within the smoke.

"Defilers!" the shadow said as the mountain shook from its massive force, "Even after I gave you a second chance you still seek to fulfill your vengeance?!"

"We have nothing left because of her!" said one of the glowing figures, her voice somehow felt _familiar_, "And as such she must suffer equally as much, an eye for an eye!"

"No," It replied, "You were given a second chance, another start and now you're just gonna waste it on revenge?!"

"Even so," another voice replied, "what can you do to stop us?! We outmatch you three to one!"

"You may win at the end of this day but remember this," the shadow replied with a cold laugh as a blue light started glowing within the smoke, "I will return no matter where and when from now and I shall send you into the depths of the abyss!"

And without warning, Erethon and the glowing figures were engulfed in a pillar of blue fire. A pair of humongous wings burst out of the smoke as a loud roar followed, making Erethon burst up from his blankets back in reality. Sweat dripped from his face as Painwheel entered the room.

"You okay?" she asked curiously as threw him a shirt, "You look like you had a nightmare."

"Yeah," Erethon replied as he got dressed, "I kinda did."

As they were about to continue their conversation, Brain Drain walked in with a big shady figure covered in a huge overcoat.

"Um who's this?" Erethon asked with curiousity as he slowly got out of his bed, scientists could be seen walking around doing their duties.

"This is Ben Birdland aka Big Band," Brain Drain replied as he walked away from a group of scientists, "He's the current head of Lab Eight after the 'unfortunate' passing of Dr Avian."

"Watch it pickle jar he's blood was on the hands of someone from your branch." Big Band spoke as he turned to stare at the cold machine beside him.

"Well at the time of the attack she decided to quit." Brain Drain coldly replied in the face of big Band's anger.

"Where are we?" Erethon asked as he pushed away approaching scientists.

Big Band then introduced them to the backup facility of Anti-Skullgirl Lab Eight since the last Skullgirl's attack on their original facility had laid it to ruin. The staff and operatives had to then move to their reserve facility as per protocol for each lab should it ever have been compromised.

"Well," Big Band spoke as he brought the trio to a briefing room, "you don't seem to be from around here and you're definitely not an ASG experiment. So why are you with this thing?"

"Well first thing's first," Erethon replied with another question, "what's the year?"

"Remember what happened at the Constiello estate?" Braind Drain asked.

"Not really…" Erethon replied.

"That was nearly 16 years ago." Brain Drain said as he plugged in his laptop with the ports in the room.

"Well since you asked me," Erethon said to Big Band as he sat down on one of the seats, "I was the one who put down the Skullgirl Selene Contiello that same 16 years ago."

Painwheel and Big Band stepped back in astonishment at Erethon's words before he asked about his sword. Brain Drain then displayed files on Erethon's sword on the screen.

"We left the sword in Lab Eight's care while we studied you as you'd give out random power bursts when it was in our facility," Brain Drain said as he showed a video recording of a couple of scientist being sent flying by Erethon as his body was engulfed in fire.

"Dr Avian never told any of us about thi~"

"Because we kept it between ourselves," Brain Drain interrupted Big Band as he showed more study files on Erethon, "we thought that this could be a chance to turn the tide against the battle between us and future skullgirls but alas, you were too much of a threat to be kept conscious so we placed you in storage for further use."

"So," Painwheel said as she stared at Brain Drain, "where is his sword?"

"It should be in the old lab's storage vault," Big Band replied as he started typing on Brain Drain's laptop, "I think it should still be fine considering that it has multiple layers of armour plating."

Erethon then got up and was about to exit the room, his eyes brimming with confidence.

"Where might you be going?" Brain Drain asked

"Well since we're not gonna get much answers here," Erethon replied optimistically as pressed the door panel. "I figured that we go over there and get my sword and any findings along the way."

"Ah what the hell," Painwheel said as she sharpened her blades, "it _is_ our only lead."

Everyone else agreed and decided to hatch a plan on how to get in. Unbeknownst to them however, an odd looking scientist was eavesdropping on them. After getting what he needed, the scientist secretly heads to the Grand Cathedral.

"Mhmm, I see." said a nun as the scientist told her his findings, "So he's trying to pick up all the pieces, interesting."

"Um is there anything else that I can help you with?" the scientist asked when his throat was suddenly sliced wide open, marble floor was slowly covered in crimson as the sound of him drowning in his own blood echoed throughout the walls.

"I can handle the rest myself," replied the nun as she kicked his lifeless body to the side, "But thank you for your cooperation..."


End file.
